When I just started out as a comedian in Singapore, I was just looking for a place where I could entertain, speak my mind and meet people that are the same kind of weird as me. To my pleasant surprise (and sometimes regret), I found family with these boys! Meet the Comics! @qamshot @CollinChris and @jackyngcomedy have opened for many of my shows at “Fuzz Nights” and also for the big Esplanade or Capitol shows for many years. But what you guys may not know, what happens in conversation backstage is sometimes where the real comedy is. When comedians hang out with each other, the amount of brutality in banter and ribbing is definitely not for regular ears. Topics such as race, discrimination, and other areas that are non-tweetable in 2021 are not only explored but also challenged. However we all know and trust that because we are such good friends, eventually, no matter how intense it gets, we all have the ability to break the tension in the end with smiles on our faces and in some weird way, understanding the perspective from the other side of the fence. I get to just blatantly ask questions like “why ya’ll like to eat prata with sugar ah?” or they ask me “if you not comedian you work for which delivery service?” And then we just burst out at how ridiculous it sounds and in the end, just bond through good ol humor. That to me, is the true beauty of living in a place like Singapore. So recently these boys dared to question my legitimacy as a Singaporean! HELLO my IC not enough is it?! I said OK let’s try out this filter quiz on @our_sg - lemme show ya’ll how Singaporean I am! Check the filter out for yourself too! You might discover that there are more similarities to us than you think.

When we work together ✨ (For some context, I saw this at the time when a lot of blatantly racist things were circulating in the media. I don’t know these two men, and I’ve put a painting filter over it to obscure their identities.) When I saw this image, I thought of how Singaporeans support each other. Here, no one was “helping” the other one out. No one was getting “special treatment”. I feel like when we talk about things like racism, sexism, classism, ableism, etc. There is a sentiment of, “All of us face problems, all of us struggle, why do “they” get “special treatment” and we don’t?” The mere suggestion of any Majority Privilege provokes really strong reactions. But, actually, is it a “privilege” to not have to bend over backwards trying to express your discomfort whilst also having to protect the feelings of the other person causing the discomfort for fear of retaliation? Is it a “privilege” to be able to point out an objective disadvantage/unfairness without being accused of playing the victim? Or is it a disadvantage when a group of people can’t because of a certain characteristic they have? Certainly not in the same way the majority can. Shouldn’t everyone be able to do that in a safe and healthy community? It’s not clear in the photo but it was actually raining pretty heavily. When it comes to things like racism, as the Majority race, our umbrella blocks those things for us, so if our fellow Singaporeans tell us they are hurting, use our umbrella; listen, validate, empathise. If we don’t understand, google, figure out why we don’t understand it. Don’t ask them to do the work for us. The thing is a lot of us have probably experienced this on some level, perhaps with a certain type of boss, with a partner who doesn’t empathise, in a friend group where you have to walk on eggshells, perhaps with a teacher who gives you a hard time for raising a totally valid question. Wasn’t it important to have someone who understood and did something? ☔ #EmergeUndividedSG #SingaporeTogether #SGTogether

All smiles today as I turn one year wiser 🎂🥳 ⁣ This is my second birthday spent in COVID, which reminds me that this time last year I had to cancel a trip to Morrocco/UK/Iceland that I had planned to celebrate my big 3-0. Although I have no idea when I could make this trip again, I’m really just grateful that me and all those who I care about have not been too severely harmed by the pandemic. ⁣ The first year of my 30’s really got me rethinking my way of life. For all of my twenties, I put a lot of focus on having a kickass Instagram feed and travelling to every corner of the Earth. Over the past year, both of these things completely fell apart for me. Instagram’s new algorithm significantly shredded my engagement and now only a small handful of followers see my posts. As for travelling - well, not much needs to be said there. While I’m aware that these are blatantly first world problems, it was frustrating to me that I could no longer exercise my passions. ⁣ ⁣ With all of the spare time I spent at home during this pandemic, I decided to learn things again. The idea of learning and being a student turned me off in my younger years because I was always burnt out from my academic or professional pursuits. When we’re in school, we learn things so that we can compete. But this time around, it felt really different as I was learning things merely out of my own interest on my own pace. Trust me, my interests are broad - from cooking to biblical history to investments. But taking in this assortment of knowledge has led me to feeling smarter and more present than ever before. ⁣ ⁣ I know it’s super cliche, but I do believe that everything happens for a reason. Maybe Instagram and travelling have to fade out of my life so that other things can fade in. I’m not firm on what this next raison d’etre of mine is yet, but the discovery process in itself is already shaping me to be a better person.